


Shine Bright Into Darkness

by Laclavande



Category: Red Dead Redemption
Genre: i cried writing every word you're welcome, writing this is my way of coping but idk if it's worked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 12:57:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16703041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laclavande/pseuds/Laclavande
Summary: Arthur dies watching the sunrise and awakes in the afterlife watching the sunset.





	Shine Bright Into Darkness

“Pa!”  
            ( _Jack?_ )  
“Pa!”  
            ( _Marston, when the boy calls for you, you gotta answer him._ )

 

“Hi, sweetheart.”  
            ( _Momma?_ )

* * *

 

Arthur opened his eyes, blinking into the bright golden light. A sunset. He sat up, expecting to cough as he did every time he got up these days, but his breath was clear. He felt strong. He felt no pain. He planted his boots on the ground. Lush prairie grass dotted with colourful flowers. He was sat on his cot in his tent surrounded by his treasured photographs that were just now coming in to focus with his eyes adjusting to the light. The featureless landscape extended towards the horizon and there were no other tents or campfires around. But he was not alone. Walking towards him was a line of figures, shadowed by the light. It reminded him of one of the gang’s approach formations, but he wasn’t afraid.  
Then the figures were closer and the light shifted. The first ones he recognised matched the voices he had heard before waking up in this dreamy place. A woman was holding the hand of a little boy in the middle of the line. It was his Momma and Isaac. Arthur stood up and walked out of the tent, though it was more of a stumble, and he fell to his knees in front of his son and hugged him. He hugged him so tight and lifted him off the ground. The little boy giggled and smiled into his daddy’s shoulder. Still clutching his son, who he would never let go of again, Arthur reached out to his mother and embraced her as well. It felt so strange. He had never hugged her as a grown man. She was so much smaller than he remembered.  
            “I’m so proud of you, my boy,” she told him in the accent he knew he had missed but had forgotten the sound of. Behind them was Eliza. She smiled fondly at him with their son. Lenny was there too, grinning like an idiot. A good kid. Sean was next to him, looking like he always did, itching to tell Arthur a story, but he was smiling too. Then there was Eagle Flies who did not smile but stood stoically with his face painted and chest bare. Forever a fighter. Miss Grimshaw, Susan, her face was uncharacteristically soft, admiring the boy she had watched grow into a man. Hosea. Dear old Hosea was there. Dashing as ever, strong as ever. He looked at Arthur the same way his mother did. So proud. Arthur gazed at them all with Isaac in his arms, taking in their faces, feeling their love. Then there was a bark and from the right, out of nowhere, came Copper, the dog he had loved so much. Copper-coloured and greying at the face, the dog bounded over to Arthur with the energy of a puppy. Arthur set Isaac down beside him and held out his arms to pet Copper.  
            “Hey boy,” he whispered happily, and the dog licked his face. Isaac was equally pleased as his daddy and let the dog lick him too. Everyone smiled then, even Eagle Flies, and Arthur laughed. Then behind him, he heard the sound of a horse trekking through grass. He stood up again and saw Buell trotting towards him down the line, his shiny coat looking even more golden in the light of the setting sun. He was the horse that a friend had asked him to care for, and the horse he had said goodbye to on that mountain. Arthur patted and stroked the horse and sighed,  
            “Nice to see you, buddy.”  
In a glint in Buell’s blue eye that looked right at him, Arthur thought he saw a bit of that old carefree veteran he once knew. Arthur turned around again and faced his friends and family and the horizon behind them. The sun was getting lower and lower.  
            “Time to go?” he asked, not a tone of fear or sadness in his voice. Hosea nodded,  
“Let’s go, Arthur,” he said.  
Arthur picked up his son and lifted him on to Buell before mounting the saddle-less horse himself. He didn’t have to prompt the animal to move as they slowly made their way west. They were all together. Brought together by Arthur Morgan. Eventually, the light took them, leaving behind the wagon and the colourful prairie.


End file.
